Author: jordan

The title of “Business Operations” (or “BizOps”) has become one of the more buzz-y Silicon Valley terms as of late. At IVP, we saw an increasing number of growth-stage startups (many of which are in our own portfolio) recruit for and build out a BizOps team — Slack, Dropbox, CloudFlare, Stripe, Counsyl, NerdWallet, and ZipRecruiter, just to name a… Continue reading Why Your Startup Also Needs a BizOps Team→

I really love this (excerpt from a Techcrunch article by Roelof Botha): Imagine it’s five years from now and your company is a massive success. you’ve got a fantastic product, you’ve achieved market leadership, and everyone else is trying to catch up. What decisions helped you get there? Now imagine the same five years have passed,… Continue reading An Exercise in Foresight→

It came as a surprise to most when Fitbit finally unveiled their financial numbers in their S-1. The company did over $700M in revenue last year (that's over 10M devices sold!) and maintained an EBITDA margin of close to 26%. It was even more surprising how well FIT was received by public market investors. Fitbit's stock… Continue reading The Bear Case on Fitbit→

My friend Star Simpson and I co-authored this piece a couple of months back, and I love that I'm still getting feedback on it! Love that there are so many entrepreneurs tackling this space. Introductory excerpt below: We are collectively obsessed with food these days. Since the launch of the Food Network in 1993, TV shows… Continue reading Kitchen 2.0→

Ever since I've had to find movers (SoMA to Jack London Square), I've been a big fan of Thumbtack. My friends and I have used Thumbtack to find local service providers such as contractors, golf instructors, housekeepers, and even a face painter. I love that Thumbtack does the work for me. It essentially reverses the workflow… Continue reading 3 Ways Thumbtack Can Improve User Experience→

Notation Capital, founded by former Betaworks folks, is a new pre-seed investment fund launched a couple of months ago. Notation Capital is attempting to institutionalize the round of funding that’s usually done by “Friends and Family”. With just an idea and a co-founder, one could actually raise up to $500K in exchange for 5% to… Continue reading The Emergence of “Pre-Seed” Capital→